KHOROG, March 12, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Celebrations to mark the 110th anniversary of Hero of Tajikistan Shirinsho Shotemur will be held this year at the government level, Nazrullo Khairuloyev, the head of the GBAO department social and cultural affairs, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, the government yesterday issued a resolution on the plan of events to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Hero of Tajikistan Shirinsho Shotemur.

The organizing committee, comprising senior representatives from the GBAO local government, ministry of culture and the committee for TV and radio-broadcasting, is to take adequate measures from July to October this year to ensure publication of materials about Shirinsho Shotemur in media and publication of the collection of works Tajik and foreign researchers and writers about Shirinsho Shotemur.

It is also planned to erect monument to Shirinsho Shotemur in the Khorog central park, rehabilitate Shotemur House Museum in the village of Porshnev, GBAO’s Shugnan district and make a documentary about Shirinsho Shotemur.

Shirinsho Shotemur (1899-1937) was the Soviet statesman.  He was born in the village of Porshnev, Shugnan district in Gorno Badakhshan.  In 1924-1927, he was member of the Presidium of the Tajik Revolutionary Committee and plenipotentiary of the Central Watchdog Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan.  In 1926-1927, Shotemur was People’s Commissar (Minister) of Finance of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR) and Permanent Representative of the TajASSR to the Council of People’s Commissars (Council of Ministers) of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (UzSSR).  From 1929 to 1932, he was Executive Secretary of the Tajik Regional Committee within the Central Committee of VKP (b).  In 1932-1933, Shotemur was the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan.   From 1933 to 1937, he was Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Tajikistan and member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union.  In 1937, Shirinsho Shotemur was arrested in Moscow following fabricating charge of participation in the ant-Soviet nationalist organization.  He was executed by shooting on October 27, 1937.  Shirinsho Shotemur was fully exonerated by the Military Board of the Supreme Court of Soviet Union in 1956.

Shirinsho Shotemur along with Nusratullo Makhsum and other Tajik politicians of that period played an important role in gathering Tajikistan bit by bit.  Thus, Nusratullo Makhsum appealed to Stalin in a letter stating that the program of national-territorial reorganization was unfair and detrimental to their interests.  Together with Makhsum, Shirinsho Shotemur actively pursued a series of questions about the expansion of borders of the autonomous republic.  Great effort was made so that Khujand and its surrounding regions became part of present-day Tajikistan.

Along with Sadriddin Ayni, Bobojon Ghafurov and Nusratullo Makhsum, Shirinsho Shotemur was awarded as Hero of Tajikistan.